Dr. Anthony Fauci may have believed his Fifth Amendment marathon at the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday would shield him from prosecution, but he miscalculated.
Before he refused to answer questions from the committee, Fauci did deliver an opening statement, during which he attacked Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and explained his decision not to answer any questions.
"Given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and, recently, his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something - anything - that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said. "Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions."
And so he did, an estimated 111 times, but it won't protect him completely.
On Jan. 20, 2025, his last day in office, Biden granted Fauci a full and unconditional pardon covering any offenses he may have "committed or taken part in" tied to his government roles between Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 19, 2025. The broad preemptive pardon Joe Biden handed him on the way out the door covers federal charges alone, and it leaves him exposed to the state charges that may arrive sooner than his lawyers expected.
Florida wasted no time proving the point. State Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an investigation into the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) after Fauci declined to answer lawmakers' questions on Wednesday.
Fauci's lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable. My office is launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci. It's past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID.
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) July 29, 2026This makes Uthmeier the first state attorney general to formally investigate Fauci since the pandemic, and likely not the last.
But Fauci may still face federal consequences as well. During the hearing, Sen Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) informed Fauci that the Supreme Court says that he has no Fifth Amendment privileges.
"As you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more, Brown v. Walker, 1896. When he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege," Hawley explained.
To that point, Chairman Paul also revealed that Fauci's refusal to testify could result in the committee voting to hold him in contempt.
"The committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so," Paul said. "It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today."
Whether Senate Republicans convert the contempt vote into an actual referral remains uncertain, and anyone who has watched congressional Republicans handle accountability fights over the past decade has earned the right to skepticism.
But, clearly, Fauci's legal troubles are not over.
Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 18:50Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
Federal authorities have seized more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine from a commercial truck at a southern border entry point, estimated to be worth at least $20 million, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Federal law enforcement officers seized more than half a ton of cocaine worth more than $20 million hidden in a truck at the Calexico Port of Entry in California. Courtesy of the DOJThe drugs were hidden in the floorboards of the truck and the attached flatbed trailer, the DOJ said in a July 29 statement. The cocaine was seized at the Calexico Port of Entry, the border crossing linking California with Mexico.
This is the "second-largest cocaine seizure" made this year in the Southern District of California, the department said. The biggest single seizure for the year was recorded in May when more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $45 million was confiscated.
When the truck arrived at the port of entry, officers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other agencies X-rayed the trailer and identified anomalies with the floorboards. After the rebar aboard the trailer was unloaded, officers lifted the wooden floor to discover the hidden drugs.
In total, 366 packages of cocaine weighing 1,002.13 pounds were seized.
The driver of the truck, Jose Manuel Lopez Lopez, 44, Mexico, was arrested by authorities and charged with illegally importing cocaine into the United States.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, with a minimum of 10 years in jail.
The amount of confiscated cocaine is a "tremendous amount of drugs, even by the standards of this district," the government said in a motion to detain the defendant, according to the DOJ.
The Epoch Times was unable to reach Lopez's legal representative for comment.
The case was investigated by the California Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) as part of Operation Take Back America.
The task force was set up following a January 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump, tasking it with ending the presence of criminal cartels and foreign gangs in the United States.
Operation Take Back America was established in March 2025 through a memorandum issued by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. One of the operations' objectives is to establish HSTFs.
The CBP has seen a surge in drug seizures, including cocaine, according to a July 16 statement from the agency.
In June, the total amount of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana seized nationwide was 49 percent higher than in June 2024 under the previous administration. Cocaine seizures alone rose by 71 percent in June from the previous month.
"CBP is preventing dangerous criminal aliens and illicit narcotics from entering our communities, enhancing the safety of every American for generations to come," CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott said in the statement.
The robust seizure numbers come amid concerns about the drug's use in the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in a report in August 2025 that overdose deaths involving stimulants, mainly cocaine and psychostimulants with abuse potential, "increased substantially" since 2011.
In 2011, a total of 4,681 cocaine-related overdose deaths were reported, which surged to 29,449 deaths by 2023, according to the report.
Among 309,274 overdose deaths between January 2021 and June 2024 in 49 states and Washington, D.C., 30 percent were found to involve cocaine.
Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 18:25Two California Democrats are moving to outlaw AI-generated campaign ads at the federal level, just days after a Republican rival for the governor's mansion used the technology to hammer their party.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Monday reintroduced the AI Ads Act, which would make it a federal violation to use artificial intelligence to impersonate candidates or committees in federal races.
This is the satire Ro Khanna and Adam Schiff want to make illegal so democrats aren't the butt of jokes.
— Charles Curran (@charliebcurran) July 30, 2026The push comes on the heels of two AI-generated spots from GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, who went after Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra.
Enough Is Enough. Let's Fix California.
— Charles Curran (@charliebcurran) July 23, 2026Of course, Hilton isn't the only one having fun with the technology. The campaign of Spencer Pratt, the reality television star turned Los Angeles mayoral candidate, made waves with his creative and side-splitting ads from Los Angeles-based director Charles Curran.
Be the Hero LA needs. Vote Spencer Pratt. pic.twitter.com/VTskAwynpB
— Charles Curran (@charliebcurran) May 20, 2026LA is worth saving. Vote Spencer Pratt. pic.twitter.com/sQQQUjN9YY
— Charles Curran (@charliebcurran) June 1, 2026Unsurprisingly, Schiff claims his bill isn't about politics, but about protecting against a so-called "serious threat to our democracy."
"AI-generated fraudulent advertising which uses the likeness or voices of candidates to misrepresent their positions, campaigns, or causes, or otherwise misrepresents a candidate's point of view is not only wrong - it poses a serious threat to our democracy that should concern all Americans regardless of their party," said Schiff. "Fraudulent AI advertising has already proliferated in races across the country, and if Congress does not act, this runaway challenge will only get worse as AI becomes increasingly capable of blurring the lines between fact and fiction. With November elections around the corner, time is of the essence to reign in false political advertising."
Groups that support the bill include Common Cause, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Campaign Legal Center, Protect Democracy and Public Citizen, according to the New York Post.
"AI will transform our lives and our society in many ways, but it can't be used to mislead voters or undermine our democracy. I'm proud to lead the AI Ads Act with Senator Schiff to ban AI-generated content that deceives the public about candidates or elections," Khanna said in a statement.
Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 18:00